Spiritual Warfare

There is no way to have peace with God without a pure heart, a pure mind, and a pure conscience. The pollution and corruption of this world makes it a very dangerous place for us to work and live in, physically and spiritually. Disease, germs, viruses, and poisons are a danger to our physical health, but the greater danger is the spiritual and moral corruption that we are exposed to everywhere we go. Our conscience is made pure when the blood of Christ is applied to our heart. We must learn how to apply the blood to our heart. Our mind is made pure by the washing of water by the word (of God).

The devil wants to kill you, and he has a plan to do so. What he plans to do with you is more than just kill you; he intends to take you to hell with him for eternity. His strategy has two stages. First get you to say "no" to God; to deny God, and turn away from Him. Then to lead you on down the road to destruction of your earthly life. He will use every means, every person, every situation, every device that is available. He will use your own desires, even holy desires, to draw you out into the world, which is his territory where he will have the advantage. There he can convince you to say "no" to God and "yes" to yourself. Then you are on the road to destruction and it is only a matter of time until your demise.

Purity means clean, not mixed with any other thing or substance. We can understand this truth in the physical realm. All sickness and disease is caused by something in our body that is not supposed to be there. Contaminates, pollution, infection by germs, viruses, or bacteria result in sickness and even death. In the spiritual realm it is much the same. Unclean spirits are mentioned more than any other in the Bible. Wickedness, sin, and evil are contagious and when we gaze upon it with our eyes and ears something filthy enters our mind and heart. Until the people who are called Christians separate themselves from the filth of this world and all its sources things are going to continue to get worse. The work of God is suffering greatly because of the sin and immorality that is commonly found in the churches.

Purity of mind, heart, conscience, and soul is a major part of being a child of God. The word means "clean" and we are very attentive to cleanliness when it comes to food or drink. We want what we take into our body to be pure, but it seems that we are very careless about what enters into our mind, our heart, and our soul. The devil is on the rampage right now like most of us have never seen. Sin, worldliness, and immorality are commonly reported among the churches. When sickness and disease start spreading we began an urgent search for the cause, and the cause is always pollution, contamination, something corrupt that has invaded our food, drink, or home. The people of God need to do the same immediately.

The "world" that God commands us to be separated from is not the created things of this earth, but rather all that is under the influence and control of Satan and unregenerate human beings. This world system and all its means of influence over mankind is under the control of the devil. The only way to be a child of God is to forsake this present, evil world and become a citizen of God's kingdom. We then live as a pilgrims and strangers here. If we are a friend of this world the Bible tells us we are an enemy of God. If we love this world then the love of the Father is not in us. But "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." So how we "fit in" and deal with the world around us is very accurate evidence of whether we are truly born again or not.

Being alone and feeling alone are two different things. All of us feel alone and abandoned at times. It is part of life. It is a hard part of life for folks when they get older because they feel it a lot. The devil likes to push us into that corner because we are very vulnerable to his lies when we feel alone and abandoned. The thing that drives this kind of loneliness away is to simply realize that we are a part of the family of God in heaven and on earth. We must be like a tree and spread our roots far and deep, into the past, and the present, with a long look into eternity. We have a great cloud of witnesses and so we are not ever really alone, or abandoned. And the Lord said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

The devil never changes his strategy. An object is presented for our consideration. Then while we gaze upon it and consider it, a desire is born in our heart for it. Then a plan is formed to obtain it. Then we obtain it. This is the natural order of things for the good and for the evil. The problem we have is with the desire. We allow the desire to take control of our mind, and truth and reality are shut out while we figure out a way to get what we want. This is our Achille's heal and the devil knows it very well. This is what the Bible is talking about when it says in James 1: "When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death." We must learn that if we are a true child of God, His desires come before ours.

It is a marvel that the mind is so prone to forget the most important things and remember the most vain things; a mind that was designed by Almighty God to work and operate in his own image and likeness. Surely there is an influence at work that causes the mind to malfunction like this. Strive to not be a forgetful hearer of the Word of God. Strive to remember and hold dear that blessings of life that God gives you in other people and his loving care for you and yours. Resist the powers that would have you forget by occupying your mind with vanity and drama.

The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. To pray according to his Will is to ask for those things which He has said in his Word that He is willing to grant. Not my will, but thine be done. Prayer is not to bring God on board with our plans and desires. It is not to inform God of the problem and tell Him how to fix it. The less of self that is involved in our prayers, the more effectual our prayers will be. To pray according to his will is impossible unless we are walking with God in righteousness. If we regard iniquity in our heart, God will not hear our prayer. (Psalm 66:18)

A carnal mind is not identified by sins and vices, but by how we interact with other people. Envying, strife, and divisions are the evidence presented in this Scripture to convict these people of being carnally-minded. Having a checklist of bad habits, vices, and other things we abstain from does not certify us as spiritually-minded. Our attitudes toward others and the way we esteem them reveals whether we are carnal or spiritual. The carnal mind is enmity with God, and is not subject to God, so Webster was right when he defined "carnal" as "unregenerate." Such sobering facts demand an honest assessment of ourselves.